CELEBRATION!

He finally did it. My brother graduated from seminary after long years of hard labor and rigorous toil! This was cause for celebration. And so we did!

We took a Caribbean cruise earlier this summer. Celebration! A few days of doing absolutely nothing but lounging around on the boat, eating, listening to music, seeing shows, eating, cavorting on the beaches (Yup! My kind of activity exactly!), eating, shopping, taking pictures, sleeping in, eating, reading, watching the waves …. Oh, and did I mention eating?

(So there we are, all dressed for a formal dinner: my brother, sister-in-law, nephews, Dad, and I.)

We celebrated!

Celebration is actually a spiritual discipline, oft overlooked. It is, in fact, the completion of the discipline of worship, inasmuch as it dwells on the greatness of God demonstrated in His goodness to us, His children.

We celebrate as we enjoy one another, our world, and all of God’s goodness, resting upon our faith in God’s magnificence, His beauty, His love. And we celebrate in concert with our fellow-believers, who, along with us, know and love the Triune God, as we together eat, drink, sing, dance, and tell of the goodness of God.

For everything created by God is good,
and nothing is to be rejected
if it is received with gratitude.
1 Timothy 4:4

In fact, in the Old Testament, God’s people were commanded to put aside money for such celebration.

You shall surely tithe ….
You shall eat in the presence
of the LORD your God, …
the tithe of your grain,
your new wine, your oil,
and the firstborn of your herd
and your flock …
Deuteronomy 14:22–23a

And notice the purpose of this celebratory activity:

… so that you may learn
to fear the LORD your God always.
Deuteronomy 14:22b

As we embrace the season of enjoyment, we really begin to see how great and lovely God is, and how good He has been to us. And thus we “learn to fear the LORD [y]our God always.” Awed reverence for God is not the donning of tight collars and the disposition of sour faces. Nope! To fear God this way includes making merry and having a good time! In the Caribbean!

Celebration diminishes our deprivations and sorrows, and magnifies our abundance and joys. And in celebrating the goodness of God we find the grace to continue to serve this good God!

The Bible is full of this exuberant activity:

You have turned for me
my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness,
that my soul may sing praise to You
and not be silent.
O LORD my God,
I will give thanks to You forever.
Psalm 30:11–12

Earlier this week, I attended the funeral of a parent of good friends. It was a celebration! The goodness of God was manifest even as we grieved, for that loved one had gone home.

Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 Corinthians 15:54

The victory that believers have in Christ Jesus who paid for sins on the cross and rose from the dead. The goodness of God! Cause for celebration, indeed!

C. S. Lewis’ imaginative creation, the demon Screwtape, remarks with chagrin, “[Pleasure] is His [God’s] invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.”

We celebrate for God has the last word.

Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice! …
And the peace of God,
which surpasses all comprehension,
will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4, 7

Celebrate!

TRAP!

That’s the first time I’ve seen one. A carnivorous plant! A plant that eats flesh—well, not animals, but insects and such (but, on rare occasion, even small frogs). Nepenthes rafflesiana. One of the many species of pitcher plants. One of the many bizarre pieces of flora found on this earth. This specimen was in Penang, Malaysia.

The trap essentially is a pitcher-like cavity filled with a liquid that contains enzymes—technically called a “pitfall” trap. Appropriately named! No doubt, a pitfall literally and figuratively for some tiny denizens of this planet that happen to fall into the pit.

I wonder if David, the Psalmist, had seen this species of flesh-eating plant. He often wrote of pitfalls:

For without cause
they hid their net for me;
without cause
they dug a pit for my soul.
Psalm 35:7

Anyhow, the aforementioned vegetable life successfully drowns its prey in the watery pit and proceeds to dissolve it. Some of these pitcher plants are known to contain kinds of insect larvae and sometimes even ants on the rim of the pitcher, as well, all of which cooperate to break down (and feast upon) the unwitting victim. The trapped fauna meets its demise rapidly and is converted into amino acids, peptides, etc., etc., with which the wolfish plant energizes its nefarious enterprises.

The unwary invertebrate is bribed into the lethal trap by the odor of nectar and other seductive accoutrements of the plant like red pigment. Once inside, a flaky wax on the grooved interior surface of the pitcher prevents the insect from climbing out.

Tempted, lured, decoyed, seduced, baited, snared! Trapped!

Good lesson for all of us Christ-followers. We, too, are easily dissolved by pitfalls, for many …

… fall into temptation and a snare
and many foolish and harmful desires
which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
1 Timothy 6:9

Jesus, Himself, taught His disciples to pray that they would not fall into temptation.

“Keep watching and praying that
you may not enter into temptation;
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26:41

Weak indeed! Distracted and disturbed, we are easily dislodged into the pitfalls conveniently provided for us by our own sinfulness:

… each one is tempted
when he is carried away
and enticed by his own lust.
James 1:14

Unseen pitfalls the world lays in our paths:

… but the worries of the world,
and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the desires for other things
enter in and choke the word,
and it becomes unfruitful.
Mark 4:19

Other pitfalls are designed to dissolve us into someone’s lunch:

Your adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8

And so, Peter warns:

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
1 Peter 5:8

That’s our responsibility.

But we are reminded of God’s sovereign grace to us as well, even in (and especially in?) times of temptation. His aid is assured!

No temptation has overtaken you
but such as is common to man;
and God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tempted
beyond what you are able,
but … will provide the way of escape also,
so that you will be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13

For sure, it is He who rescues us from the clutches of evil and the pitfalls of life.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless His holy name.
… and forget none of His benefits;
who redeems your life from the pit ….
Psalm 103:1–2, 4

Don’t fall in!

FOCUS!

Yes, 85 (eighty-five!) tools. All 85 of the tools produced by Wenger, manufacturers and purveyors of ye olde and fine product, the Genuine Swiss Army Knife. All 85 on one single device—including (here goes!): a nail file, nail cleaner, corkscrew, adjustable pliers with wire crimper and cutter, spring-loaded locking needle-nose pliers with wire cutter, an assemblage of screwdriver bits, double-cut wood saw with ruler (inches and centimeters!), bike chain rivet setter, allen wrench, laser pointer, compass, magnifier, springless scissors, flashlight, fish scaler and hook disgorger and line guide, reamer, fine fork for watch spring bars, golf divot repair tool, can opener, tweezers, toothpick, …. “What it does not have,” they advertise, “you do not need!”

There you have it—the “Giant Swiss Army Knife.” An almost 3 lbs-heavy behemoth! Winner of the Guinness World Record for “the most multifunctional penknife.” Multifunctional? Functional? That monster? Oh, and I forgot, you’ve got to shell out US$999 for that King Kong of knives. If you think that titan of tools is functional, you’ve got another think coming. To their credit, Wenger warns the unwitting buyer who, now US$999 poorer, finds this contraption to be perfectly useless.

I quote from their website.

“It is really intended for collectors of Swiss Army Knives and collection display, as opposed to a pocket tool, it is just TOO BIG for practical use. This Wenger Swiss Army knife is NOT a pocket tool, it is for display—collector's [sic!] only.”

(Now who would’ve thought it wasn’t a pocket tool!)

Sometimes one gets carried away. All those things we can do. All those gifts and talents we possess. All that time on our hands. All those opportunities and open doors beckoning us. And we must go through them all. Yes, we do get carried away, perhaps with an inflated sense of our own versatility (or should I say “omnipotence”?).

Brethren, I do not regard myself
as having laid hold of it yet;
but one thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward
to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal ….
Philippians 3:13–14

Paul’s statement is even more crisp in Greek: “… but one ….” That’s it. Two words. But one! His single-mindedness, preoccupation, his resolve and determination for God and His glory is striking.

… I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish
so that I may gain Christ ….
Philippians 3:8

Amazing, his clinical focus on proclaiming Christ, almost to the neglect of everything else.

But whatever things were gain to me,
those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Christ.
Philippians 3:7

Time, he knew, was short, energy limited, capacities finite, bodies frail ….

… holding fast the word of life,
so that in the day of Christ
I will have reason to glory
because I did not
run in vain nor toil in vain.
Philippians 2:16

We can’t be an 85-tool Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife—non-functional, running and toiling in vain.

Instead, may we, by beginning to reflect on how God has used us in the past, and on what He is doing in our lives now—may we develop better focus on where and how we should concentrate our energies in the future. For we must be …

… careful how [we] walk,
not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of [our] time,
because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15–16

A functional one-tool knife!

BURN!

This was no random conflagration I spotted on a street in Penang, Malaysia, a couple of months ago.

In Chinese religious traditions, burning “joss paper” (aka “paper money,” “hell’s money,” etc.) is an age-old practice for the benefit of expired ancestors. Joss paper is essentially squares of gold-colored paper, elaborately decorated with seals, stamps, designs, and other appropriate motifs. Apparently this incendiary process is a means to transfer money to those populating the afterlife, so that those denizens of the other-world will have sufficient purchasing power to live comfortably in the hereafter. Paper credit cards, properly stamped “VISA,” are thought to work well, too, not to mention faux traveler’s checks and other monetary instruments. Sometimes these are made out in specific denominations, usually in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

Things, these days, however, have come to a pretty pass; the non-traditionalists (read: “postmoderns”—woe betide them!) have gone beyond financial items. Such iconoclasts have been known to burn papier-mâché replicas of all kinds of useful commodities, including Mercedes Benzes, laptops, iPhones, passports …. Oh, and Viagra! Paper Viagra is a popular item to be passed on to one’s ancestors, reliable sources inform us. I shall refrain from speculating about the rationale for such a prurient gesture towards one’s predecessors.

Sometimes these offerings in smoke are specifically directed to the Judge of the Dead to bribe that official to release one’s ancestors from the traumatic and less-than-comfortable holding place they might have been confined in.

Indulgences, they used to call it in other places. Of course, Western practitioners of this system were much more sophisticated than humble Easterners. No burning for them. No smoke, no ash. Of course, not! That wouldn’t be environmentally acceptable. Nonetheless, it was a mutated form of burning joss money. In fact, in an undertaking of immense faith these professionals did away with pretence altogether. Why bother with toy money, when you can deal with the real stuff. So they did, with well-meaning descendants attempting to pay off the religious hierarchy in order to win their ancestors a few million years less in purgatory.

Martin Luther inveighed against these devices in no uncertain terms. In fact, his nailing documents to church doors (the ancient version of a flaming post online) kicked off a wake of protests, generating the species of Christianity called Protestantism.

That smart dude was no doubt familiar with Hebrews 9:27.

… it is appointed for men to die once
and after this comes judgment ….
Hebrews 9:27

In other words, not a whole lot we can do for those gone on before. Salvation is function of one’s belief or faith in Christ as Savior before death, not after.

Behold, now is the acceptable time,
behold, now is the day of salvation ….
2 Corinthians 6:2

Here and now is the time for that momentous decision.

Moreover, the Bible does not teach any trans-galactic relocations between stations that are allotted to us in the afterlife.

“… between us
[Fr. Abraham et al. in Paradise]
and you
[a certain rich man in Hades]
there is a great chasm fixed,
so that those who wish to come over
from here to you will not be able,
and that none may cross over
from there to us.”
Luke 16:26

All the more reason for those of us who are believers to labor in proclaiming the Gospel.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were making an appeal
through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20

I pray you will be.